Dealership service of Internet-connected vehicles has tended to focus on helping owners navigate entertainment offerings and driver assistance tools. But the architecture for such services offer dealerships two other big opportunities: communicating with an owner throughout a vehicle's life cycle and replacing troubled parts before they fail.
Most manufacturers provide automated notifications of recommended service and vehicle health reports through apps. General Motors and Toyota's Lexus luxury brand have more extensive systems that alert dealerships and owners when problems occur; GM can even predict failures of certain components. Tesla, which can send over-the-air vehicle fixes and updates, provides similar services.
Harnessing connected data for real-time alerts and interactions is a challenge. Even tougher is perfecting the data science of making accurate predictions about failing parts: Artificial intelligence enables comparisons of large amounts of historical data to live sensor data, with algorithms determining when or if a part might fail.
The predictive part of maintenance alerts is still in its infancy. But as data on components grow and machine learning improves, more drivers will get notices about impending failures rather than alerts about current ones.
Meanwhile, expanded alert systems are driving service lane business.